Frans de Waal Quotes

Science is a beautiful gift to humanity; we should not distort it.

There is nothing inherently wrong about science.

Is science of any value? I think a power to do something is of value. Whether the result is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how it is used, but the power is a value.

Younger scientists are extremely sensitive to the moral implications of all they do.

Science has a human origin and a human destination.

I fear … that morals do not of necessity advance hand in hand with the sciences.

Biological science is a tool, and like all tools, it can be used for good or bad. It’s like a knife blade with three edges: The edge that cuts, the dull edge that does not cut well and the edge that cuts what you do not want it to.

Science is the best idea humans have ever had. The more people who embrace that idea, the better.

Science is a wonderful discipline, to which we are deeply indebted.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.

Science reckons many prophets, but there is not even a promise of a Messiah.

I count myself fortunate to be able to participate in the life of science in this era.

It takes years to realize the multiple benefits of science; without adequate, sustained funding for research, the careers of many bright, young scientists may come to a screeching halt.

When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves.

Please don't make the mistake of thinking that 'Oryx and Crake' is anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a tool. Like all ways of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be bought and sold, and it often is. But it is not in itself bad. Like electricity, it's neutral.

I love science, and I believe in it. I have a faith that science can solve problems and make the world a better place.

Science is an enterprise that should be cherished as an activity of the free human mind. Because it transforms who we are, how we live, and it gives us an understanding of our place in the universe.

We think that it is the best scientists working in the frontier fields of science who are best able to judge what is good and what is bad - if any - in the application of their scientific research.

Every science has been an outcast.

When the goals of science collide with moral and ethical judgment, there are certain times when science has to take a time-out.

We are a society now that is 100 percent dependent on science.

This is a matter far too important to be left solely in the hands of the scientific and medical communities. The belief that surrogate mothers and clonal babies are inevitable because science always moves forward, an attitude expressed to me recently by a scientific colleague, represents a form of laissez-faire nonsense dismally reminiscent of the creed that American business, if left to itself, will solve everybody's problems. Just as the success of a corporate body in making money need not set the human condition ahead, neither does every scientific advance automatically make our lives more 'meaningful.' No doubt the person whose experimental skill will eventually bring forth a clonal baby will be given wide notoriety. But the child who grows up knowing that the world wants another Picasso may view his creator in a different light.

I felt I had had enough of politicians and government upheavals …. Suddenly I was enveloped in the feeling that only science is lasting.

I am among those who think that science has great beauty.

Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied.